Paul McCartney’s ‘Ocean Kingdom’ at City Ballet - The New York Times The New York Times Dance |Hands-On Brand Name Composer For a Ballet Search Continue reading the main story Photo Paul McCartney and Peter Martins at a rehearsal of “Ocean's Kingdom,” which will be put on by the New York City Ballet. Credit M J Kim/MPL Communications THE composer, dressed down in denim and Nikes, strolled into rehearsal at the New York City Ballet’s Studio 2 late last month to see for the first time what the choreographer Peter Martins had made of his score, “Ocean’s Kingdom.” Over the next hour, as the music played from a CD, the 48 dancers portrayed a romance set in a royal undersea court and a magical forest, with nobles, handmaidens and thugs. There were poised geometric ensembles and bursts of individual acrobatics, a ballroom scene, embraces and battles, even a brief bit of drunken comedy, all clearly telling a story. Composer and choreographer watched intently, often leaning together to confer in whispers.

At the end the composer leaped to his feet with a standing ovation, exclaiming, “Whoo!” That “Whoo!,” high and sweet, could have come straight out of a Beatles song. Which made sense, because the composer was Paul McCartney, trying his first ballet and being, it turns out, far more hands-on than a typical ballet composer. With “Ocean’s Kingdom” he has taken a part in everything: story, sets, costumes, even elements of the dance itself. As a novice to ballet composing, he approached the project in his own fruitfully naïve way. “The great thing for me was I never worked like this before,” Mr. McCartney said afterward. “One of the reasons I do this is to have new experiences in my life.” Continue reading the main story Mr. Martins, the company’s ballet master in chief, said, “Paul obviously has a great ear, but he also has a great eye and many wonderful ideas, so I was happy to use them as his input really enriched my creative process.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story When the run-through ended, Mr.

McCartney chatted for a few moments with some of the lead dancers, who earnestly asked him about nuances of their characters and basked in his approval. Mr. McCartney returned to attend the next full week of rehearsals, said Sara Mearns, one of the company’s principal dancers, who plays the central role of the princess Honorata. City Ballet has often commissioned new ballet scores — Mr. McCartney joins a lineup that includes Wynton Marsalis, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Charles Wuorinen and John Adams — but the composer generally plays a more limited role. Ms. Mearns said Mr. McCartney “was there in all the rehearsals, and he would sit there and watch and he would chime in. He really is a huge part of the process in the ballet, and he really cares a lot about it. This is definitely something new for everybody, to have this kind of energy around a ballet.” “Ocean’s Kingdom” is the centerpiece of the City Ballet’s season. Its opening, on Sept. 22, is the company’s annual gala. And while the score is remote from rock ’n’ roll, Mr.

McCartney’s name and music are likely to draw audiences that are not ballet regulars, whether it’s baby boomers who paid hundreds of dollars to see Mr. McCartney this summer at Yankee Stadium or fashionistas curious about costumes designed by his daughter Stella McCartney. The production is budgeted at $800,000, said Katherine E. Brown, City Ballet’s executive director. “It’s on the high side, but not really out of proportion for its size and scope,” she said, citing the size of the company, the full orchestra, and the length of the performance. Mr. McCartney “donated his services,” Ms. Brown said, and Ms. McCartney made “her resources available at a very reduced level.” Photo A rehearsal of “Ocean's Kingdom,” which will be put on by the New York City Ballet. Credit Andrea Mohin/The New York Times For City Ballet, Ms. Brown said, “it’s an investment in repertory building and in audience building.” The annual gala, which has previously raised a little over $2 million, has already drawn more than $3.7 million this year. Ticket sales for the production are strong, Ms. Brown said, and it has drawn new donors.

“I am really struck at how universal his appeal is,” she said. “And Peter and Paul have a very simpatico kind of artistic relationship.” “Ocean’s Kingdom” is, in many ways, an old-fashioned story ballet: a tuneful, tonal, orchestral work, in four movements, that accompanies a straightforward tale of love, complete with a princess. Written by Mr. McCartney, it illustrates the adventures of King Ocean’s daughter, Honorata, and the earth royalty who both desire her: King Terra and his brother, Prince Stone. (In true storybook style no one worries about breathing.) Mr. McCartney’s music unfolds through motifs and episodes, not pop verses and choruses; it harks back to Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Holst and Vaughan Williams, with a touch of Gershwin when the tough-guy Terra contingent struts in. In both music and dance, aquatic tranquillity contends with earthy brashness, a divide to be bridged by the lovers. Mr. McCartney could have simply completed the music and let Mr. Martins and his company do the rest. He didn’t.

“I’m used to doing, and being involved in, many elements in the things I do,” he said, the cover art on albums and the placement of a video screen for a stadium concert. For “Ocean’s Kingdom” Mr. McCartney wrote the entire story line, scene by scene, and made paintings to suggest the backdrop for each act, which will be projections, and the final tableau. Mr. McCartney suggested to his daughter that the costume design include tattoos for the bad guys. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Martins recalled telling Mr. McCartney: “You’ve done the music, you’ve done the libretto, you’ve done the scenic elements. And Stella’s doing the costumes, and you told her, ‘I want tattoos.’ I said, ‘The only thing you haven’t done is the choreography.’ ” Mr. McCartney laughed, and said, “Just give me a couple of weeks.” In fact, Mr. Martins revealed, he incorporated some of Mr. McCartney’s body language into the dance.

A signature stance for the ballet’s bad guys — the “Terra punks” — has the right arm raised, elbow bent and fingers splayed, and the left arm outstretched: a “Shazam!” pose. Mr. Martins said, turning to Mr. McCartney, that one day while they were listening to the punks’ music in his office, “You stood up, and you went like this” — he assumed the stance — “and I thought, well that’s a great image. And I threw it in the ballet.” Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy The collaboration began when Mr. McCartney met Mr. Martins in March 2010 at the School of American Ballet’s annual Winter Ball fund-raiser. Soon afterward, Mr. Martins asked if Mr. McCartney would be interested in writing ballet music. Along with his rock albums, Mr.

McCartney has released four classical albums since 1991: two oratorios, a “symphonic poem” called “Standing Stone” and an album of shorter pieces, “Working Classical.” The “Ocean’s Kingdom” score is due for release as a CD (Hear Music/Telarc/Concord) on Oct. 4. When Mr. Martins approached him, Mr. McCartney had already written a few minutes of rippling, oceanic music for the filmmaker Jacques Perrin; it had gone unused, and he had been thinking of extending it into a larger piece. Now he had a purpose for it, but no guidelines. “Foolishly I didn’t ask,” he said. “I didn’t say, ‘Well, what’s this ballet about, that we are going to do?’ ” “I thought, what do I know about ballet?

What the average Joe knows — ‘Swan Lake,’ ‘Nutcracker Suite.’ Well, I thought there’s no point in me doing that or trying to do that, because it’s been done by Tchaikovsky better than I might ever be able to do it.” While composing the music, he attended a Royal Ballet performance of “Giselle” with an analytical eye and spoke to the dancers afterward; mostly, however, he worked on his own. Photo Costume design sketches from the show “Ocean's Kingdom.” Credit New York City Ballet He added, “With most things I do, I imagine myself as someone in the audience, so I just thought, ‘Well, what would I like to see?’ ” Mr. McCartney does not read or write standard music notation. For the past few years he has used a computer program that simulates orchestral instruments. “I find it very addictive, so when I have time off I’ll go in there and just make little pieces and things, ‘cause I enjoy the process,” he said. By summer of 2010 his oceanic fragment had grown to about 50 minutes of music. Only after he had written the music did Mr. McCartney start considering a story.

He went through the piece with an engineer, identifying points in the music that could suggest characters and plot. “It’s either going to be a load of rubbish, or it might start to have a hint of a story,” he said. “O.K., this is somebody beautiful coming in here. This is somebody noble. These are baddies. So I just got it and blocked it out.” A baby-naming book gave him monikers like Honorata and Stone. “It just kind of organically grew as the music did,” he said. “And I finally thought, well, this just seems like a good enough story.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story It’s an accessible fairy tale with a glimmer of environmentalism. The sea kingdom is serene and elegant; the earth intruders are angular and aggressive. “There was this subplot that I mentioned to Peter that seemed to emerge,” Mr. McCartney said. “It was never mentioned in the ballet, just kind of in the back of our minds, that there’s this ecological thing of the purity of the oceans, the destruction and pollution by the earth people, and who will win.” “Ocean’s Kingdom” is a rarity in Mr. Martins’s career: a new narrative ballet.

Although he has done versions of “Swan Lake” and “Romeo and Juliet,” his work is generally a more abstract response to a composition in the tradition of his predecessor George Balanchine. “That was a challenge for me,” Mr. Martins said. “But it was very well paced, I thought. So that’s why I’m surprised that the narrative didn’t come first.” Mr. McCartney said that at times Mr. Martins “would say, ‘Listen to this,’ and he would be showing me my own music,” he said. “I knew the king came in at some point during these three minutes, but there it was, it was an exact cue. It was as if Peter had said to me, ‘I need to you to write a king entrance, 10 bars.’ ” Mr. Martins did offer suggestions on the story: in particular, a lovers’ pas de deux in the third act. “We’re sitting there listening to the music, and Peter said, ‘This is erotic, yes?’ I said well, yeah, sure,” Mr. McCartney recalled. “He really put his interpretation on it.

But then I was able to go, ‘Wow, thank you for that.’ Because I think at that point in the ballet we’ve had the elegance, we’ve had the punks, we’ve had the dance, we’ve had the romance, and then at this point of despair, suddenly you get sex, and I thought, that’s a good idea.” “It’s always a good idea!,” Mr. Martins said, laughing. Mr. McCartney also revised the music with choreography in mind. “When I first played it to Peter, one of the first things, what he actually did was count the music,” Mr. McCartney said. “The opening, because I hadn’t really written much for dance, the rhythm was 4/4, very straight.” He snapped his fingers, humming the tune. “Then I thought: ‘Oh, O.K., you are going to be counting are you? Well great, I’m going to throw you some stuff then.’ ” He chuckled. “A little 7/8 started to creep in, and 2/4 bars and things, and I knew it would give you something to play with.” Throughout the collaboration, Mr.

McCartney said, “he could see I was having loads of ideas.” He grinned. “I was kind of hoping he wouldn’t say, ‘No, no, that’s O.K., thanks, enough.’ ” A version of this article appears in print on September 11, 2011, on Page AR1 of the New York edition with the headline: Hands-On Brand Name Composer For a Ballet. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe Paul McCartney--Ocean's Kingdom ballet premiere - YouTube Paul McCartney--Ocean's Kingdom ballet premiere Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Sep 23, 2011 This is the audience applause for the dancers, choreographer, music director, Stella McCartney (the costume designer), and Paul McCartney who wrote the music and the book for the ballet. The premiere was on September 22nd, 2011 at the David Koch Theatre in NYC.

Category Paul McCartney’s ‘Ocean’s Kingdom’ - Review - The New York Times The New York Times Dance |Pop God Dives Into World of Ballet Search Continue reading the main story Photo Robert Fairchild and Sara Mearns with fellow members of New York City Ballet in “Ocean's Kingdom,” with music by Paul McCartney, at the company's gala at Lincoln Center on Thursday night. Credit Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Paul McCartney’s first ballet score, “Ocean’s Kingdom,” is in no way an important addition to the corpus of ballet music, but it deserves a better staging than the one it’s been given by New York City Ballet. Never less than agreeable, it has plenty of color and melody. Curiously, it sounds as if it had been composed in the neo-Romantic era before the Beatles: some of its most expansive tunes have hints of Borodin and Samuel Barber; some of its atmospheres evoke Ravel; and its jolliest passages are on the cusp of Bernstein’s “Candide.” The highlight of Thursday’s gala was the introductory “See the Music ...” session, in which the company’s music director, Fayçal Karoui, spoke about the score, playing excerpts to illustrate several different aspects of Mr.

McCartney’s composition: the nature of its melodies; the way it transforms a bass figure through orchestral variation into a theme; its creation of intimacy and humor; its rhythmic urgency and heightened suspense; and, finally, its nobility and optimism. These occasional “See the Music ...” features are a recent development at City Ballet, and a number of the audience members resist them. Yet Thursday’s led us into Mr. McCartney’s music as Peter Martins’s choreography never did. So why was that session the most stimulating part of the evening? We can blame the new ballet’s scenario: it’s trite. We can blame the ballet’s costumes, by Mr. McCartney’s daughter, the fashion designer Stella McCartney: they’re intrusive, unflattering and clichéd. But there have been better ballets to much sillier scenarios, and many of the greatest choreographers (above all, George Balanchine, City Ballet’s founder, with Lincoln Kirstein) have sometimes saddled their work with abysmal costumes. Photo Peter Martins and Paul McCartney at the Koch Theater. Credit Andrea Mohin/The New York Times For many people in the audience, it will be enough to say that the choreography was by Mr. Martins.

The company’s ballet master in chief since 1983, he has demonstrated more aspects of ballet-making technique than most choreographers will ever learn, and yet for decades now most of his new work has been stale: lacking either felicity of invention or stylistic individuality. Continue reading the main story Because of Mr. McCartney’s involvement, there was tremendous media excitement about “Ocean’s Kingdom.” And yet I know of no regular balletgoer who felt any great advance hopes for the work; Mr. Martins has turned better music than Mr. McCartney’s into lead many times before now. “Ocean’s Kingdom” isn’t offensive: it’s just harmless, forgettable, bland, thin and occasionally incompetent. Advertisement Continue reading the main story In a note for the program, Mr. McCartney writes that he was already working on “a piece of music with an underwater theme” when Mr. Martins invited him to consider a ballet. Mr. McCartney then returned to the underwater idea, now with dance in mind. Photo Robert Fairchild and Sara Mearns in “Ocean's Kingdom,” with a score by Paul McCartney.

Credit Andrea Mohin/The New York Times There is an assortment of characters, some marine, others earthly. Several of Ms. McCartney’s costumes evoke bygone trends from Carnaby Street in London. The entertainers wear luridly iridescent costumes and clownishly fluffy wigs; the aqueous folk (led by Honorata and her papa, King Ocean) wear several layers of filmy drapes in blues and greens of various lengths; the earthly hero, Prince Stone, and his sidekicks have dark dapplings over their torsos, and the odious King Terra (Stone’s brother) and his henchmen, with Mohican-chic hairdos, are dressed in dark colors to remind us of their evil natures. No dancer is made to look any lovelier by this apparel. Sara Mearns, as Honorata, is one of several women whose costumes are cut in a way that makes their upper bodies look heavier above the waist than they are. The ballet, planned like a symphony, is in four movements and is about 50 minutes long.

And its problems start at the very beginning, in the scenario described in the program, when it states: “Against the wishes of the lovers (Honorata and Stone), Scala turns back to stop the advancing army and though she is ignored by them, she magically conjures up an intense storm which envelopes and destroys them. To the horror of Honorata and Stone, Scala also perishes. They escape and are met by friendly forces from the Ocean Kingdom. They return home in triumph. ...” Photo Daniel Ulbricht and Savannah Lowery of City Ballet in “Ocean's Kingdom,” choreographed by Peter Martins. Credit Andrea Mohin/The New York Times Grammar and spelling are not the only problems here: is this a story you need to see played out onstage? Still, nothing is wrong here that some distinguished choreography could not put right. The story is about that prime Romantic subject: lovers from different worlds. So we watch to see the choreography that expresses love’s power to transcend, and it’s here that the ballet disappoints most. Ms. Mearns is America’s most remarkable ballerina today, and Robert Fairchild (Stone) has become City Ballet’s most captivating male dancer, but this ballet does not encourage you to think so.

They have a whole series of pas de deux — at least one in each of the four movements — and yet these each prove only so much blah. When they express mutual delight, they take turns propelling each other around; when they are frustrated and unhappy, he supports her in backbends. Every situation finds them stuck in an emotional rut. Mr. Martins doesn’t rise to the music’s big melodies with any sustained dance idea, and he doesn’t bring its liveliest rhythms to life with any eye-catching metric complexity. I hope someone else choreographs this score before long: it has many more dance opportunities — especially in its finale — than Mr. Martins has chosen to realize. If you read the synopsis only afterward — as I did — you find that it clears up a number of points that were unclear onstage. Georgina Pazcoguin makes a dramatic impression throughout the action as Scala, an initially sinister character in charge of Honorata’s handmaidens, but it’s hard to tell why Scala is involved in the first place, what her motives are for changing her mind, or even that she eventually perishes. When introducing his company’s galas from the stage, Mr.

Martins’s favorite gimmick is to make a toast and tell the audience that this house tradition was started by Balanchine. Plenty of people know perfectly well that Balanchine originally said, “In Russia we drink the health of the guy that died” before tossing some vodka down the hatch by way of hailing his friend Stravinsky, but never mind: it’s always an event to watch Mr. Martins having a snifter as he hails some benefactor (usually alive these days) or another. On Thursday he toasted Mr. McCartney with a cup of tea. “Ocean’s Kingdom” will be in the New York City Ballet repertory through Thursday and again from Jan. 19 through 29 at the David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center; nycballet.com. A version of this review appears in print on September 24, 2011, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: Pop God Dives Into World Of Ballet.

Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe NYCB - Ocean's Kingdom Ocean's Kingdom Choreography by: Peter Martins Music by: Paul McCartney A hallmark collaboration between Peter Martins and Paul McCartney, Ocean’s Kingdom marked the first time McCartney composed for dance, and Martins’ choreography follows the music’s libretto of a romance between lovers from conflicting kingdoms. Created for NYCB’s 2011 Fall Gala, the world premiere of Ocean’s Kingdom marked the first time that the legendary musician and songwriter Paul McCartney composed for dance. Peter Martins’ choreography follows an original libretto about a romance between lovers from conflicting underwater kingdoms. The costumes were designed by fashion designer Stella McCartney, in her theatrical debut. The ballet also features projections by S. Katy Tucker integrated with lighting designs by Mark Stanley and sets by Perry Silvey. Performances Ocean’s Kingdom – McCartney Ballet Music | Beatles Blog Ocean’s Kingdom – McCartney Ballet Music Posted on by beatlesblogger Paul McCartney’s first ballet score, “ Ocean’s Kingdom “, with choreography by the New York City Ballet’s Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins, will premiere at the Lincoln Center in New York on September 22.

“Ocean’s Kingdom” marks the first time that McCartney has composed for dance, and Martins’ choreography will follow the music’s libretto of a romance between lovers from conflicting kingdoms. The production’s costumes are designed by another McCartney, daughter and leading fashion designer Stella. Its also the first time she has done costume design for the theatre. The album containing the music from the work is to be released on October 4. It is performed by the London Classical Orchestra, directed by John Wilson. According to Amazon there will be a CD and vinyl versions available, and it is released on the Hear Music/MPL/Telarc label: There are four movements to the work: 1. Movement 1 Ocean’s Kingdom 2. Movement 2 Hall of Dance 3. Movement 3 Imprisonment Sir Paul will be attending the premiere in New York on September 22. Share this: Paul McCartney's ballet 'Ocean's Kingdom' debuts in New York | Culture Monster | Los Angeles Times Paul McCartney's ballet 'Ocean's Kingdom' debuts in New York September 23, 2011 | 10:59 am The women are older and more elegantly dressed — but they scream just as loud.

It's been 47 years since Paul McCartney first came to New York and was greeted by wailing female fans at JFK airport but at Lincoln Center on Thursday night, as the 69-year old former Beatle jauntily walked down the red carpet to attend the world premiere of his ballet, "Ocean's Kingdom," the high-pitched screams continued, this time echoing through the stately, high-culture courtyard. Reaching the doors of New York City Ballet's theater, McCartney waved to his fans, shook the hand of an NYPD officer and bounded inside with his entourage. With four classical albums under his belt (“Ocean’s Kingdom,” set for release in two weeks, will be his fifth) McCartney is indeed a composer as well as a rock legend — and if you don't take my word for it, a 1999 BBC poll ranked Sir Paul the No. 1 composer of the millennium, with Mozart and Bach right behind him. When he took his seat in the center box the music began. As the orchestra played, the whole band and conductor started rising from the pit on a mechanical platform, like an organ before a silent film.

Once fully in view, the maestro, Fayçal Karoui, turned around and delivered a nearly 30-minute introduction (billed as a "unique exploration") accompanied with excerpts from McCartney's score. The effect was deadening. Imagine a waiter at French Laundry pulling up a chair and sitting down at your table, then describing in oozing detail the wonderful dinner you're about to be served. The black-tie audience -- including Sarah Jessica Parker, Ralph Lauren, Lorne Michaels, Liv Tyler, Naomi Watts, Alicia Keys, Jon Bon Jovi and Steve Buscemi -- patiently waited until Karoui's music appreciation class — and bad Beatle-themed puns — ended, then the new ballet, with choreography by New York City Ballet head Peter Martins and costumes by McCartney's daughter, Stella, finally began. "Ocean's Kingdom" is an old-fashioned story-ballet that in four movements tells of a watery princess and earthly prince. The scenario is McCartney's and it is standard storybook stuff: a grand ball, love at first site, abduction, and of course, marriage. All of this fits well with the score, which at its best sounds like competent Hollywood soundtrack to fairy-tale themed film.

Unlike his first major classical work, 1991's "Liverpool Oratorio" which had traces of minimalism and modernity, "Ocean's Kingdom" (despite being composed with the help of a computer) feels like court entertainment from decades past. You might not want to listen to the whole thing on your iPod, but that's the case with a number of classic ballets. Give McCartney credit — his music does manage to convey the setting and underscore the action. If only the action was worth watching. Peter Martins' dances are not just forgettable, they're boring. There's running around in circles and cheerleader-style symmetry that looks as if the choreographer were setting the piece on student dancers — not one of the finest companies in the world. Besides a brief acrobatic duet by Megan LeCrone and Craig Hall, there was nothing that showcased the artistry of the City Ballet principals or corps. Stella McCartney's slinky blue dresses looked lovely on the water-maidens, but otherwise the costumes simply served to make the water kingdom look like a hipster garden party and the earth people look like a Maori biker gang.

At its worst the Lycra-and-plumage outfits and decor called to mind a Vegas revamp of "Cats." What was dearly missing from the evening was a sense of humor. Historically, straight-forward or nostalgic settings of Beatles music have not fared well (see: the musical "Rain" or the film "Across the Universe") because the magic behind the Fab Four's sound was its youthful insouciance. Humor and a sense of not taking things seriously was what director Richard Lester brought to films like "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help." Had City Ballet partnered McCartney with a choreographer in that vein, one who likes to tweak tradition — Mark Morris or Alex Ratmansky, say — rather than embalm it, "Ocean's Kingdom" might have been a fun diversion, or even more. When he took his bow at curtain calls, McCartney waved and grooved a little in his wiggly-jiggly way and then strummed a few notes on an imaginary guitar. It was the freshest movement on the stage all night. And naturally, it earned the loudest screams.

RELATED: Reviewing the Drama: Broadway, Off-Broadway, Ballet, Movies and TV Reviews: City Ballet: Ocean's Kingdom and Union Jack Reviewing the Drama offers news and views about theatre, ballet, movies and other forms of artistic expression. Wednesday, September 28, 2011 City Ballet: Ocean's Kingdom and Union Jack Paul McCartney: Beatle. Icon. Ballet composer. On September 22, 2011, Sir Paul McCartney made his ballet debut with Ocean’s Kingdom, for which he is credited with writing the music and libretto. According to program notes, the collaboration between Sir Paul and New York City Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins (who choreographed Ocean’s Kingdom) began at the School of America Ballet’s Winter Gala. “Being aware of McCartney’s interest in classical music,” the notes say, “Martins broached the idea of them one day collaborating on something.” And so McCartney and Martins began work on what would become Ocean’s Kingdom. The story is fairly simple, and, actually, is full of classic themes of love, betrayal and trust.

The overall story reminded me a lot of Romeo and Juliet, and because there was music and dance involved, I, of course, couldn’t help but also think of Romeo and Juliet’s musical theatre counterpart, West Side Story. We begin with two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Ocean’s kingdom, where we lay our scene. At rise, Princess Honorata (Sara Mearns) is dancing idly in her underwater kingdom with her Water Maidens. (The curtain rises and the ethereal dancers look like they’re floating underwater. It’s remarkable.) Her father, the cleverly named King Ocean, appears, and then the Ocean “subjects” are visited by nobility and rabble rousers from the earthly kingdom: King Terra (Amar Ramasar), his brother, Prince Stone (Robert Fairchild) and the Terra Punks invite King Ocean, Honorata, et al., to a party in the earthly kingdom. Prince Stone and Princess Honorata instantly fall in love with each other. (Is this sounding familiar?) At the party, Stone and Honorata continue their courtship, much to the displeasure of King Terra.

He enlists the traitorous Scala (Georgina Pazcoguin), Honorata’s chief of staff, if you will, to help steal away Honorata from Stone. King Terra and Scala bid successful, and King Terra whisks away Honorata, tearing her from her lover, who is left heartbroken. Next we see Honorata in captivity (perfectly suggested by Mark Stanley’s brilliant lighting design), devastated by her separation from Prince Stone. Stone appears but cannot break her out of prison. Suddenly Scala arrives and the two lovers plead with Scala to help Honorata escape. Seeing their pure love for one another, Scala realizes her mistake and helps Honorata out of captivity and aids Honorata and Stone as they escape to freedom. This is a good ballet, and one which, because of Sir Paul’s name recognition, will certainly be folded into the City Ballet repertoire for years to come. However, it’s not a great ballet, and it seems a rather insignificant work in the annals of ballet history. McCartney’s score is good if elementary. I don’t claim to know music theory or know much about composition, but I knew very well what my ears hear.

I liked that, fittingly, the ocean themes were more legato and the terra themes tended toward the staccato. I was underwhelmed, however, with the expected changes in tone when different characters appeared: the score grew heavier and darker when evil lurked and brightened up when good triumphed. (It may delight some Beatles fans that here and there I heard remnants of familiar Beatles tunes, particularly “Sgt. Pepper.”) McCartney is admittedly just beginning to dabble in classical music and this is his first foray into composing for ballet. Grading on a beginner’s curve, I’d give this not too complex composition a C – just average. The costumes, by McCartney’s daughter Stella (an accomplished fashion designer) varied to fit the characters and moods, and for the most part I thought they greatly enhanced the ballet. I particularly liked Princess Honorata and her Water Maidens’ looks – crinkled and flowy chiffon with asymmetrical hemlines. They were gorgeous shades of blue, green and aquamarine, and allowed the lithe dancers to flow through the “water” with ease and grace.

(With a few modesty-modifications, I could actually see many of the Ocean’s Kingdom costumes appearing on the runway and street.) Prince Stone and others from the earthly kingdom were in black body suits that had flesh-toned cutouts and designs (the patterns varied from dancer to dancer) that effectively evoked terra cotta pottery and other earthenware. The one miss, though, were the costumes in movement two. (This part of the story was a miss, too, bloating the ballet with an unnecessary divertissement, and no plot development that couldn’t have happened quicker or in the previous movement.) Here, there was a garish mix of comically colorful clown-like costumes. It was like Joseph and his amazing Technicolor dream entertainers had come to dance for us. Led by Daniel Ulbricht as the Lead Entertainer, an Exotic Couple, some Amazon Women and Drunken Lords came out to “entertain” us. The problem was there costumes were disorientingly different from the look of the rest of the ballet (and it so stalled the plot) that the brief entertainment felt like an eternity.

It also didn’t help matters that the Exotic Couple was clad in yellow body suits with cutouts that made it look like they accidentally wandered in from The Lion King. But this is the ballet, dear readers, so let’s get to the dancing. Martins choreographed a lovely ballet that served the story well, and I liked that though this is a narrative ballet, the miming was kept to a minimum and Martins relied mostly on dance to tell the story. Lovely as the choreography was, there was nothing terribly impressive or unforgettable about it. (Martins’s Romeo and Juliet – especially the balcony scene pas de deux – on the other hand, is exquisite.) But though the choreography was forgettable, its execution was not. As the two star cross’d lovers, Sara Mearns and Robert Fairchild impressed with their technique and acting. I thrilled over the playfulness of their pas de deuxs. They exuded an honest youthful eagerness and energy. (Their first pas de deux, however, reminded me so much of the dance Tony and Maria do when they first meet at the big dance in West Side Story. Martins didn’t rip off Jerome Robbins, not by any stretch of the imagination.

But the gestalt of Martins’s dance, the way the lovers see each other, everything slows and they are left to dance into each others’ lives, was very reminiscent of Tony and Maria’s first dance.) Mearns and Fairchild had great chemistry. (This is the first time Martins has choreographed for them as a pair.) You may remember that I tend to like watching Fairchild dance with Sterling Hyltin, but I think Mearns did a terrific job here, and her grounded nature made her a good choice to dance Honorata. And, of course, I thrilled over watching my dear Robbie Fairchild, whose presence is commanding and whose passion for dance and the role he’s dancing always shines through. In contrast to the soft flow of the ocean dwellers’ dancing, all the terra dancing, led expertly by Amar Ramasar, was crisp and precise (and actually reminded me a lot of the precision in Christopher Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvres .) Ramasar was an intense villain, and he impressed with his powerful and steady moves. As presented on Tuesday night (five nights after its premiere), Ocean’s Kingdom looked like a preview performance of a new musical.

There was some tentative dancing, with some dancers looking like this dance wasn’t in their bones yet. And it may not be. It’s a new work. I think with a little more shaping, trimming and tweaking, it could be better. Perhaps this is a preview period, and the next time Ocean’s Kingdom is performed (which, I believe, will be this spring) it will have grown into its pedigree. Curiously paired with Ocean’s Kingdom was Balanchine’s Union Jack. With music by Hershey Kay, who adapted the score from traditional British music, this ballet, according to repertory notes, “was created to honor the British heritage of the United State on the occasion of its Bicentennial.” It gets there, but only after a laborious start. We start by being introduced to the many regiments: First is the Scottish and Canadian Guards regiments, led by Joaquin de Luz and Charles Askegard; next is Green Montgomerie, led by Abi Staffard, Jared Angle and Janie Taylor; Wendy Whelan leads MacDonald of Sleat; and Maria Kowroski is at the head of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

For the first five or seven minutes, it’s nothing but each regiment – slowly and methodically – marching out to a drum roll. I tired quickly. After all the regiments had made their entrance, the individual regiments got a chance to dance and things started to pick up. Throughout the whole thing, though (and later on, too) I wished the dancers had been wearing tap shoes, as their hoofing would have complemented the percussive score and added some interest to a rather dragging first part. The second part was 100 times more entertaining. Meant as pure entertainment to break up the beginning regiments and the concluding naval ballet, Costermonger Pas de Deux seemed straight out of vaudeville – certainly a playful comedy act that I wouldn’t be surprised to see playing in the background of Babette’s Supper Club on Boardwalk Empire. ( Newly married ) Andrew Veyette and Megan Fairchild come out as the Pearly King and Queen and begin their routine of one-up-manship. They mug for the audience as they cutely beg to be allowed to entertain you. It’s almost like they say, “Let us put on a show for you. No? Okay.

How about one more?” (I think their playfulness with both each other and the audience was even cuter because I know they are newlyweds!) Veyette was charming in the “Anything you can do I can do better” battle, but I was really impressed with Fairchild. She had a sweet – but not treacle – demeanor, and she’s of the beautiful comedienne, Reese Witherspoon-ish ilk. Cute but not cutesy, fun, funny and carefree, Fairchild had the audience – and Veyette – wrapped around her little finger by the time the divertissement was through. The finale continued the whimsical vibe of part two, with the Royal Navy and the Women’s Royal Naval Service coming out to show their patriotism. In various groupings, the naval academy engages in a dance marathon of patriotism, as once they come out on stage, they never stop moving. It was truly impressive.

(Again, I wished they were wearing tap shoes, and because of the naval uniforms, I kept thinking about the incredible nine-minute tap dance in Anything Goes .) The fun ends with the company using hand flags to spell out – in Marine semaphore code – “God Save the Queen.” It’s a playful end to a ballet that starts out drudgingly slow but builds to a boisterous finale. New York City Ballet: Fall Gala: See the Music, Oceanï¿½s Kingdom New York City Ballet: Fall Gala: See the Music, Oceanï¿½s Kingdom New York City Ballet: Fall Gala: See the Music, Oceanï¿½s Kingdom - Onstage with the Dancers: Special Events The New Yorker Hotel is a historical, first-class, landmark hotel. Founders, George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein Founding Choreographers: George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins Ballet Master in Chief, Peter Martins Ballet Mistress, Rosemary Dunleavy Childrenï¿½s Ballet Master, Garielle Whittle Orchestra, Music Director, Fayï¿½al Karoui Managing Dir.

Communications & Special Projects, Robert Daniels Manager, Media Relations, Katharina Plumb Assoc., Communications & Special Projects, Caitlin Gillette The David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center ( Read More NYC Ballet Reviews ). Conductor: Fayï¿½al Karoui See the Musicï¿½ A musical exploration of Paul McCartneyï¿½s score for Oceanï¿½s Kingdom, Featuring Music Director Fayï¿½al Karoui and the New York City Ballet Orchestra. Tonightï¿½s commissioned composition for Oceanï¿½s Kingdom, by Paul McCartney, who also wrote the libretto, was introduced to the Gala audience by both Peter Martins, who choreographed the ballet, with gracious remarks and a toast of English tea, and Maestro Fayï¿½al Karoui, who led the ï¿½See the Musicï¿½ï¿½ segment once again. Mr. Martins stood on stage, and Mr. McCartney created a pretend air guitar refrain, at his center parterre seat. The mood tonight was exciting, as the paparazzi had been at the red carpet to catch the arriving glitterati, especially Mr.

McCartney, his fiancï¿½e, and his daughter, Stella McCartney, who designed the costumes for this ballet. Maestro Karoui rose on high with City Ballet Orchestra, from the pit, and we got a taste of the debut score, with sound bites from each of the four movements. The score began with symphonic rapture, exuding elements of Broadway and Hollywood. There was a sense of longing, reflection, harmony, and broken silences. I heard solo brass and what seemed a bassoon, followed by percussive excerpts that build in dynamism, with bells, cymbals, flute, and timpani. My side parterre seat was perfectly suited to view the orchestral musicians and Maestro Karoui, who kept entertaining and lecturing, to lead the audience into musical meanings. Clearly City Ballet had invested considerably in this premiere work, and the Company created a team effort in its initial introduction. In fact, in rare presentation, Oceanï¿½s Kingdom was the solo ballet on the Gala program..

Oceanï¿½s Kingdom (World Premiere): Music and Libretto by Paul McCartney (commissioned by New York City Ballet), Music Arranged by John Wilson and Paul McCartney, Orchestrations by Andrew Cottee, Choreography by Peter Martins, Costumes by Stella McCartney, Video & Projection Design by S. Katy Tucker, Lighting by Mark Stanley, Scenery by Perry Silvey, Costume Supervision by Marc Happel, Production Stage Manager: Marguerite Mehler, Makeup by Pat McGrath, Printed Fabrics by Dyenamix, Hair by Eugene Souleiman, Performed by Sara Mearns as Honorata, Robert Fairchild as Prince Stone, Amar Ramasar as King Terra, Georgina Pazcoguin as Scala, Christian Tworzyanski as King Ocean, Daniel Ulbricht as Lead Entertainer, Megan LeCrone and Craig Hall as Exotic Couple, Savannah Lowery and Emily Kikta as Amazon Women, Anthony Huxley, Allen Peiffer, David Prottas as Drunken Lords, and the Company as Water Maidens, Terra Punks, Courtiers, and Handmaidens. Princess Honorata and her father, Ocean Kingdom, live in an underwater kingdom.

Scala is in charge of Honorataï¿½s handmaidens, and sheï¿½s sinister. King Terra, of the earthly kingdom, arrives underwater, with his younger brother, Prince Stone. They invite the underwater characters to a ball, while Prince Stone already is enamored by Honorata. At the Grand Hall of Dance, the guests watch acrobatics, interrupted by three drunken lords. When King Ocean and Honorata arrive, King Terraï¿½s henchmen create terror. Prince Stone and Princess Honorata build on their attraction, as the rivalry between the earth and underwater characters intensifies. Soon King Terra kidnaps Honorata, assisted by Scala and the henchmen. Princess Honorata is imprisoned in Terraï¿½s palace, but Stone comes to her rescue. He fights Terra for her release, helped by Scala, whoï¿½s now on Honorataï¿½s side, and the lovers reunite and embrace. Scala, Stone, and Honorata dash into the moonlight, chased by Terra and his warriors. Scala tries to stop this army, by magically creating a storm that swallows them all, including herself.

Stone and Honorata find the friendly army of the Ocean Kingdom and return to celebrations of honor. Scalaï¿½s spirit is seen again, blessing Honorata and Stone. (Assisted by City Ballet Program Notes) One of the most prominent features of this ballet is the Stella McCartney costumes, with Honorata and the Handmaidens in filmy blues and greens of the ocean, an elegant sight. The two-level skirt and train shimmered like seaweed and fish fins, floating and gliding with the choreography. Sara Mearns, as Honorata, and her Handmaidens were a dream-like vision in these costumes, with material reaching from the waist to the neck, in revealing results. The Water Maidens were in similar mellow pastels. Craig Hall and Megan LeCrone, an Exotic Couple, were in yellow unitards, with Mr. Hall bare chested. Scala, Georgina Pazcoguin, had a long, dark blue-green filmy costume, with an expansive cape and plunging neckline, similar to Honorataï¿½s costume.

King Terra, Amar Ramasar, was in a Mohican headpiece, black studded jacket, and black tights, with tattoos about his unitard, similar to Stoneï¿½s (Robert Fairchild) and those of the Terra Punks. Christian Tworzyanski, King Ocean, matched the blues of his daughter, Honorata, but with crown and cape, while Daniel Ulbricht, as the Leader of the Entertainers, had a fluffy clown wig and colorful tights. Also colorful were the Drunken Lords, but the Terra Punks wore Mohican headpieces, black geometrically layered vests, and tattooed tights. Mr. McCartneyï¿½s music was expressive and eclectic, not at all what I was expecting, as a former Beatle fan . I was transported by the repetitive computerized refrains that Mr. McCartney composed on an online program at his Sussex, England recording studio. He had been working on an underwater theme prior to this commission, and it was well suited to this collaboration with Mr. Martins.

It had themes of adventure and combat, it had yearning solo strings, it had romantically infused euphoria, and it had combinations of rambunctious jazz, refined classicism, searing atonality, and percussive fireworks. Mr. Martinsï¿½ choreography meshed with libretto and score, and, at times, I thought this would make a fantastic animated film for all ages, akin to Disneyï¿½s Fantasia In fact, I could just see the shadowy profile of Maestro Karoui, much like that of Leopold Stokowski. The Terra Punks and Handmaidens are the stuff of imagination, and Mr. McCartneyï¿½s digital score would be so suited to the animation process. Meanwhile, here, tonight, Mr. Martinsï¿½ vision was well received by the audience, with numerous curtain calls. The several, impassioned pas de deux for Stone and Honorata reminded me of those he created for his Romeo + Juliet, with languorous lifts and lush embraces.

When Honorata is imprisoned in a cube of Marc Stanleyï¿½s beams of light, she moves with flashes of terror, but when sheï¿½s rescued in the heat of battle, the loversï¿½ reunion is well contrasted to the theatrics of Terra and his Punks. The Punk ensemble dances with long leg leaps and a foot on knee, tilted motif that was quite theatrical. The choreography for the Exotic Couple, in yellow, was sinewy, reminiscent of the exotic pas de deux in Mr. Martinsï¿½ Swan Lake ballroom scene. Scalaï¿½s entrances and exits were powerfully fashioned, and Daniel Ulbrichtï¿½s entertainer solos were similar to his Jester in Swan Lake, with rapid spins, high jumping jacks, en air leaps, and tumbles. King Terra was a swashbuckling malevolent, and Prince Stone was a courageous, fearless lover, all thanks to Mr. Martinsï¿½ choreographic design. As for the cast, Ms. Mearns and Mr. Fairchild were stunning and surreal as the fantasy lovers, throwing themselves into the musicality and plot. Mr.

Ramasar, too, a fascinating dancer to watch, brought thunder to his role and enhanced the excitement of the Punks. Ms. Pazcoguin, who should be seen in more solos, has expansive personality, especially in these fiery roles (think about her Anita in West Side Story Suite). Mr. Hall, particularly, is a dancer who needs more showcasing, and his ï¿½exoticï¿½ partnering of a long-limbed Ms. LeCrone was mesmerizing. Savannah Lowery and Emily Kikta, as Amazon Women, added muscle, as the remaining women onstage were Handmaidens, Water Maidens, and Courtiers. Mr. Huxley, Mr. Peiffer, and Mr. Prottas were vaudevillian Drunken Lords, comically careening about, and Mr. Tworzyanski was regal and steady, as King Ocean. An added effect was a series of videos and projections, and the minimal scenery, by Perry Silvey, was also effective. As mentioned above, many curtain calls brought the cast and creators to the stageï¿½s edge with bouquets and applause.

Kudos to Paul McCartney, and kudos to Peter Martins, for this new underwater fantasy ballet. Sara Mearns and Robert Fairchild in Martins'- McCartney's "Ocean's Kingdom" Sara Mearns and Robert Fairchild in Martins - McCartney's "Ocean's Kingdom" Paul McCartney Returns to Classical Music with Debut Ballet Ocean's Kingdom - WQXR Paul McCartney Returns to Classical Music with Debut Ballet Ocean's Kingdom Thursday, September 22, 2011 Paul McCartney and New York City Ballet Master in Chief Peter Martins collaborate on a score for "Oceans Kingdom." Recommended Links More about Ocean's Kingdom at NYC Ballet Update: On Thursday, January 19th at 8 pm, WQXR will re-air the New York City Ballet Orchestra broadcast of Paul McCartney's Ocean's Kingdom. Hear the complete score recording from it's September 2011 opening night, on 105.9 FM and WQXR.org. Before his first-ever ballet score premiere, Sir Paul McCartney gets to the heart of his musical processes in a lively conversation with WQXR's David Garland. Listen to the interview above.

The 69-year-old former Beatle considers the challenges and appeal of writing the orchestral score for Ocean’s Kingdom which opens at New York City Ballet on Thursday night. Choreography for the much-anticipated production is by the company’s ballet master in chief, Peter Martins, and costumes have been designed by his daughter, Stella. WQXR will broadcast the work on 105.9 FM and WQXR.org on Sept. 28 at 8 pm. McCartney reveals that the 60-minute orchestra piece began with aspirations to be a score for a film documentary about the oceans. The directors approached him with the footage and, according to McCartney, gave him carte blanche to fashion the music. “I went right back to the studio and got started writing this piece,” he said. “When I next got together with them they said ‘no, that’s not quite what we meant.’ So that project didn’t pan out and I said I better leave this alone.” Then in 2010, McCartney met Martins at a benefit in New York, and the two began discussing collaborating. “I had been wondering what I was going to do with this other piece, which was quite well formed,” he noted.

He accepted the commission knowing that he could return to his film score and refashion it as ballet music. McCartney expanded the score, developing themes for the characters, and weaving in rhythms that were more dance-friendly. He also started to attend more ballet including Adolphe Adam's Giselle, danced by the Royal Ballet in London. The piece, McCartney said, has a strong ecological underpinning about “the purity of the oceans potentially being ruined by these terrible earth people.” The former Beatle, who famously doesn’t know how to read music and thus developed the score with the aid of a computer program, admitted that “it can be very embarrassing to be in front of an orchestra and a conductor will say to me, ‘at letter D here, is that a 3/4 or a 2/4 bar?’ I’d say, ‘could you play it?’ Because I could tell then. I do it by hearing it.” (The British arranger John Wilson is co-credited with the arrangements for Ocean's Kingdom.) Yet McCartney also contrasted the more intuitive process of rock musicians with that of orchestral players: “Guys out of [bands] have a much better idea of time and tempo than orchestral players,” he said.

“And I love your orchestral players.” The four-movement Ocean’s Kingdom has been recorded by the London Classical Orchestra and will be released on Oct. 4, a week after the first run closes in New York (it returns in January). This is McCartney’s fifth foray into classical music, after the Liverpool Oratorio (1991), Standing Stone (1997), Working Classical (1999) and Ecce Cor Meum (2006). These scores have rarely won favor with critics, yet as McCartney notes, they are just one among many creative outlets in recent years. “After playing in a stadium before 60,000 people, it’s nice to be able to go into my studio to play on my computer,” he said. “Most people get a job and that’s pretty much what you do.

With me, I’m so lucky I’ve got this job and I can say ‘I’m going to do classical today, a concert in Sao Paulo next week, then an experimental piece.’ It keeps it really fresh and that makes me feel like I’m not working, I’m playing.” Text: Brian Wise / Interview: David Garland / Production: Eileen Delahunty Classical McCartney: Sampling the Rocker's Classically-inspired Side Through the Years Ecce Cor Meum (2006)

Question: Who composed the music for the 2011 ballet 'Ocean's Kingdom'?
Answer: Paul McCartney